It's a long road to Broadway
by AnAwkwardGirlNamedAlice
Summary: What happens when two British girls move to Chicgago to begin their Broadway careers. They meet Team Starkid of course!
1. Chapter 1

I hate planes. You'd think that my fear of flying would prevent me from going anywhere outside of the UK. But no, I'm here on a plane to Chicago trying not to puke into the pathetic sick bags provided for me. For some stupid reason me and my best friend Stephanie decided to move away from everyone that we know to one of the world's largest and most scary continents. We both want to be on Broadway, and Steph decided that the first step to success was to leave our family and friends behind and become independent women.

Steph left for Chicago a week before me because she said she wanted to get the apartment ready for my arrival. But I know that when she told her family of our big plan, they kicked her out of the house so she had to live with my family for three months. And since her best friend is going with her, she had no one to say goodbye to. I on the other hand had two halves of the same family and an ex-boyfriend to bid farewell. It was torture. There were people shouting and crying and generally being quite rude so the only person who was excited for me was my older brother Mike. But I know that's just because he'll finally have a room all to himself.

The pilot performs the bumpiest landing in history and I'm finally able to get off this metal death trap. I race through passport, visa and baggage control to get to baggage claim as fast as possible because I know that Steph would have gotten here at least 3 hours to early and I don't want her to wait any longer. Before I can even react I'm tackled by a blonde screaming "ALICE!" at the top of her lungs and just about manage not to fall over.

"STEPH!"

"I missed you so much!"

"But it's only been a week!"

"I know but I've never been away from you this long!"

"Well now you're stuck with me because we live together!"

We decide that we should stop shouting in an airport so grab my suitcase as it comes around the conveyer belt and step outside. I assume we're going to take a taxi but then I see Steph climbing into an old, faded blue truck. I guess she passed her driving test. We talk all the way there about how weird America is and Steph tells me how much I'm going to love our apartment. We get to the apartment block were I'm surprised to find the lift works so we go all the way up to the fourth floor which holds two apartments. Steph rushes over to the door for apartment 4B and unlocks it then looks at me with the brightest smile and says "Welcome home".


	2. Chapter 2

The apartment was lovely, small and impractical but lovely. But I noticed that there was not a sign of Steph's presence anywhere, obviously all her stuff was there. But it was all neatly tided away in drawers and shelves. Not like Steph at all, who usually, like myself, let things fall where they may but always seemed to know where everything was. This was part of the reason why my parents had almost begged me to move out. I just don't think they counted on the America part. But anyway, it was too tidy.

"Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?" I asked as I put my backpack down near the door.

"What are you talking about?" she asked turning around to face me with a hand on her hip.

"It's tidy, really tidy, it's Sheldon Cooper tidy" I said, of course referring to our favourite TV show. "You're not tidy"

"Well, we're starting a new life out here are we not, so I thought I'd make an effort to change how I go about things, starting with our mess"

"But I still want to be messy, can you be tidy and I be messy?"

"Fine, but that means you have to do other chores" she said and then looked down at the basket of washing in the corner. "You can start by taking that down to the laundry room"

"Fine, love you too" I muttered as I picked up the basket and called up the lift. It was still there so I got straight back in and pressed the button for the ground floor. I didn't exactly want to be doing laundry on my first day in America but I did have a secret desire just to react some scenes from "The Big Bang Theory". I stepped out of the elevator and followed the signs to the laundry room only to find someone standing in the doorway. I looked past them to see the washing machines overflowing with soap suds and covering the whole room. Seeing as it was quite a large doorway I walked up beside them holding my basket out in front of me. "What happened?" I asked staring at the mess.

"Mr Robin lost it again" he said, a slight amusement in his voice. "No laundry for a while" he said before I saw him move his head out the corner of my eye "Oh, you're new, hi I'm Joey".

I looked up at him and my words caught in my throat. Out of all the apartment buildings in all of America we had moved into the same one as Joey Richter.


	3. Chapter 3

'Breathe Alice. Breathe.' Is all I could think as I looked up at him trying not to let my fan-girl show. I had basically given up on ever meeting any of Team Starkid, I just wasn't that lucky of a person, but there he was gazing down at me with a curious expression on his face. I couldn't wait to run upstairs and tell Steph but remembered that he was right there, and I should probably be talking or something like that.

"Uh, hi I'm Alice. I just moved in" I managed to choke out, worried that I was obviously a fan.

"Wow you're from England, quick say more words" his eyes brightened up and the eager smile on his face just made me feel all fuzzy inside. Well at least he hadn't figured out that I knew his birthday or anything like that yet.

"Hi I'm Alice and I'm talking to this weird guy in the laundry room who likes my accent which is strange because I'm from boring Hampshire and he's from the US" I said a little too quickly just wanting to impress him with my, uh, accent?

We talked for a while about nothing in particular and I grew confident that he wouldn't discover my 'secret identity', as long as I didn't start quoting any of the shows of course. We made our way back to the elevator deep in conversation about Super Mario when he abruptly asked

"So what floor"

"Oh, I'm on four I think"

"No way, me too" I couldn't contain my smile as we rode up to our floor and stepped out into the hallway "So I guess I'll see you around"

"Yeah, see you a-"

"JOEY FUCKING RICHTER" Steph shouted as she opened our door and stared at him. I turned to Joey to explain but she ran past me and tackled him to the ground. She really was stronger than she looked.


	4. Chapter 4

"STEPH!"

I almost couldn't believe it at first. It all happened so fast. One second Joey was raising an eyebrow at me, almost asking for an explanation, and the next he was gone. It took me a while to get my thoughts in order to even think about looking down but once I did I wished I hadn't.

Steph had been in the girl's rugby team back in England, meaning she could flaw anyone from Lauren Lopez to Coach Beast, so it was no surprise as I set sight upon her and Joey sprawled on the floor in a messy tangle. Steph was already back to her senses and kneeling beside him, quickly explaining to him how much he meant to her and how much he had helped her like I'd heard her rehearse in front of the mirror at least one hundred times. But a groan from Joey as he ran a shaking hand through his hair finally moved me into action.

"STEPH!" I exclaimed as I grabbed the girl's shoulders and hauled her to her feet, moving her as far away from Joey as I could get her. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

She looked at me with wide eyes as she chewed at her lower lip "Introducing myself" she said in a low whisper.

"By tackling him? What have I told you about tackling people if you're not in a rugby game?" I responded cocking my hip, finally managing to lower my voice.

"Not to do it"

"Exactly"

"But Joey Richter"

"No, just because you've had a crush on a guy for three years does not mean that the first time you meet him you're allowed to tackle him to the ground. Now I want you to apologise to the nice man"

"…sorry"

"You know, I don't think he heard that"

"Sorry Joey"

"Good girl. Now go back into the apartment and think about what you've done" Steph slowly turned dragging her feet behind and I watched as she made a bee-line straight for her room. I sighed softly running a hand through my hair as the other rested on my hip; sometimes I almost forgot how much of a handful my best friend was.

"Little help?"

I quickly turned as my memory kicked in and realised Joey was still on the floor. I ran to him and grasped his outstretched hand in both of mine hauling him up and letting go as he moved back to lean against the wall.

"I am so s-sorry" I stuttered, trying to keep my voice even "Steph's just such a big fan, well we both are and cause we lived in England we never thought we'd ever meet any of you guys. And I think she just got over excited at the sight of you and she's a bit of a "loose cannon" but really she is a good person and she's really sweet and I'm sure next time you see her she won't be so aggressive. I'm just really sorry, wait, and are you hurt? You're not hurt are you? Oh gosh, you don't have free healthcare do you? I promise we'll pay the medical bills and we're really nice neighbours honestly we don't have pets or instruments, well we have a keyboard but that come with headphones so you won't hear a t-" my words were cut off as Joey placed a hand over my mouth.

"Hey it's okay, I've been tackled by fangirls before, and I'm a big boy I can take it. Don't worry about the healthcare shit, I'm fine, honest. Now if I take my hand away do you promise not to start rambling again?" I nodded weakly and he moved his hand, I found myself returning the grin he now wore and felt the blood rising in my cheeks.

"So, uh, it was nice meeting you and I'm gonna go and try to figure out a way that next time I speak to you it won't be awkward" I said indicating back to my apartment as I slowly backed up.

This made him chuckle as he opened the door to his own apartment and looked at me "It was nice meeting you Alice" he said as he closed the door. I turned around and closed my own door behind me leaning back against it as the events of the past ten minutes finally sunk in.

"That went a hell of a lot smoother in my head"


	5. Chapter 5

"I look stupid."

"No, you look great."

"You're bias. I look stupid and everyone is gonna make gifs of me looking stupid," whined Joey as he collapsed down onto the couch.

"There are already enough gifs out there of you looking stupid, trust me, I have them all saved. And besides it's a _Starkid _show, looking stupid is the whole point." I told him, reaching out and ruffling his hair.

I know, me, ruffling Joey Richter's hair without him freaking out and getting a restraining order. Crazy, right? Well not so much when you've seen the guy every day for the last three months and spent most of that time trying to convince him that you won't let your best friend tackle him again.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Yes, and it did because you sir are smiling," I teased as I walked over to the computer, setting the video of Deeds performing the routine back to the beginning. "Now class, we're going to try this again," I said tying my auburn hair up in a ponytail, "and I'm joining in."

"Oh, this'll be good," Joey smirked, finally getting his butt off the couch and standing beside me.

The music started. I'm not entirely sure what happened; but there was a lot of arm waving, stubbing toes and someone got rather competitive and tackled the other, completely breaking his own "no tackling" rule.

"Happy now?" I asked, attempting not to get any of his hair in my mouth as it hung in front of my face.

"Very," he responded, rolling to the side and throwing his head back in laughter.

I turned on my side to look at him, trying to figure out what was going on in his weird little head. "You finding something funny, punk?"

"Yeah, that the guys have been trying to cheer me up about this all week and you just stroll in and make a fool of yourself and now I know I got this," his face lit up as he looked at me, his jaw straying.

"Must be my European charm."

"No that's not it."

"I will throw my shoe at you."

"Try me."


End file.
